Albatross
by Watson-A-Name92
Summary: After the dust clears and the Tempest crew can take a breather, Sara and Kandros are volunteered to go out exploring on Meridian. Which would be just fine with Sara, if she wasn't into the leader of the militia. Has end-of-game spoilers. Kandros/Sara Ryder, Gil Brodie/Scott Ryder
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: I finally realized I've let this fic get ahead of me on AO3, but haven't cross posted it here. Anyway, here's Albatross. Bioware owns about all of what you see, I'm just borrowing it. Enjoy.**

* * *

Sara Ryder was confused.

Really, she had no right to be after the whole Saving The World thing, but damn it, she had just done that and she deserved some free thought that wasn't about the Archon or Kett or anything of the sort.

Still, it felt wrong that one of her biggest thought processes after she had taken down the Archon was about companionship. After everything she felt like she didn't deserve it, that she needed to be alone forever to keep the Hero status up and going, especially if there were going to be bigger fights in the future.

But then again, Kandros was… Kandros. And it was very hard to not let her mind wander.

He had been the only entirely open person from the Nexus who was entirely in her corner out of the gate. And he was was at least attractive and kind and god, that _voice_. Two days prior, she was still reeling from the Archon fight. By the time she had reached the meeting place that Addison had chosen to speak with her, Tann, Kesh and Kandros, she was overexerted. She had nearly collapsed just inside the meeting room when he literally swooped in and taken her arm to steady her. And then had to go and be perfect and played it off like she had stumbled over a spot on the floor. It was like he had known she would take slight, momentary embarrassment over looking weak after everything, and she was endlessly grateful.

He was such a nauseatingly good person, despite his apparent efforts not to be, and she needed some of that in her mess of a life. The chase was going to be the complicated part, though.

"-And then that's when the hanar and I had a one night stand… … _Oi, Sara are you even listening_?!"

She snapped out of her reverie and glanced across the table she was sitting at

Gil Brodie was staring back at her. He crossed his arms and arched an eyebrow playfully. "You know I thought I was going to have to come up with more to that story and that's terrifying. Look, I know engineering talk gets dull and your eyes glassed over at least ten minutes after other people's do, but it is your ship we're talking about. She needs to recover, just as much as we do."

"Yeah," she said absentmindedly, which earned her a light kick under the table. "Ow! Look, I told you before that we're nearly swimming in credits and resources now. What the Tempest needs, it gets."

"Now you're back," Gil noticed. "Good. And shut it, you barely even felt it!" he countered. "So who's the lucky lad that you're all in your head about? Still the King of Exile Island? Because we've all said that's a bad idea, right-"

"He's better than he makes himself out to be, but as I told the others, pretty sure it's just sex anyway-"

"The bastard had hearts for eyes when we first landed here after we got the Archon? Not likely."

"Shut up!"

Gil took a swig from his beer, she relaxed a bit. She could always at least count on Gil to know when to shut up, or when to stop if he was just in a teasing mood. And her sex life was already complicated, she didn't want to think about the details and make it even stranger. The topic seemed to have been dropped after a minute when Gil had gone back to eating whatever the concoction that was supposed to resemble Earth food was that they had been sharing.

She was rescued again when she caught sight of blonde hair and a familiar body shape walking towards them out of the corner of her eye. "Scotty! They let you out already!"

Scott shrugged and looked away, all painfully feigned guilt. "Might have snuck out when I had a moment. Still in recovery but I need fresh air," Scott Ryder answered as he joined them. He sat in the remaining chair at the table. "And of course I'm gonna be like everyone and visit the hero of the century A.K.A my big sis!"

Scott laughed, then turned his attention to Gil. "You know, I've seen you around but I just realized we haven't met. Are you…. Reyes?" he asked.

Gil stared, then after a moment he let out a bark of a laugh that even he found undignified, if his following expression was anything to judge it by. "No, no, not remotely Reyes. Name's Gil Brodie. Good to finally meet the other Ryder face to face."

Scott nodded after a moment. "Same to you. Heard a lot about you so far. I guess I have you to thank for playing brother to her when I was, uh, indisposed."

Gil smiled. "Yes, anything for our girl here," he reached over and pinched Sara's cheek, which earned him her fork's prongs into his wrist.

Scott laughed. "Yeah, but, seriously man, thank you. We don't… have that many good people in our lives. It's good she got you out of the deal. She needs some of that dynamic."

"My pleasure," Gil answered, but the 'pleasure' was suddenly so loaded that Sara kicked him under the table for good measure.

Sara realized that 'service' before had just been loaded and concealed a groan.

To her horror Scott's smile turned to a smirk and he opened his mouth to reply.

She was in the process of covering her ears, at least, until another voice broke out.

"There you are, should've known, get back here, Ryder!" another voice called from off to the side.

 _Harry_ , Sara realized. _Saved by the pseudo uncle. Go figure._

Scott pointed at her. " _That_ Ryder?" he asked when Harry finally reached them.

Harry glowered, but there was no animosity behind it. Instead, he merely shoved one hand under Scott's nearest arm and pulled up.

Scott, to his credit, laughed again and let Harry drag him back towards medbay.

The remaining pair was silent for a while, and then Gil finally spoke. "Would it be weird if I admitted I would climb your brother like a tree?"

"Ew, Gil! Yes! That's my brother! My _little_ brother!"

"I mean you have to admit he's attractive."

"He's my _brother_!"

"Yeah, well your brother is goddamn Adonis, isn't he?!"

"You're so fucking weird. What happened to not opening up to people with stuff like that?!"

"You passed the test, and shut it, you love me."

"I do," she admitted.

He grinned, victorious, then leaned back. "So who's the real MVP of your affections, Ryder? Anyone the crew knows?"

"I'm not saying shit," she countered. Which, of course, got absolutely ruined when she subconsciously looked towards the latest Apex setup. "Shit," she repeated.

Gil tossed his head back to laugh this time. "You're literally the worst liar. Now who's… " his jaw dropped, more to be dramatic to get a bigger rise out of her. "You like the bossman there, don't you? You don't go there all the time to check out missions, you go there to talk to him. That's adorable."

"I changed my mind. I hate you."

Gil rolled his eyes, then, suddenly a fair bit more serious. "You should go for it! You deserve a little romance if you want it after all you've done. And he seems like the sort that'll give romance back and not be a lying ass about it. Or anything."

"Someone would think you and the others don't like Reyes, Gil!"

Gil smirked, then glanced ahead, directly behind her. "Hey, Kandros."

Sara shot him a look. "Yeah, like I'd ever actually believe-"

"Brodie. Pathfinder."

She whirled around so fast her chair tipped back. And of course, Kandros was there as always to steady it before it fell over. Really, it was near impossible to swoon over anything with him. "Kandros! Hi! What brings you here?" she asked, a little too loudly for her own comfort.

"Figured I'd check in on everybody's favorite resident before I went off on an Apex mission. It's only right that the leader goes out on the first few runs on the new world. What about you two?"

"Team bonding, making sure the watering hole's not poisoned," she answered. She tried not to visibly flinch when she realized how bad the joke was. She was grateful that the corner of Gil's lips turned up, but he stayed quiet in response.

That was, until he got that devious look in his eye. He took another drink and leaned back. "Hey, Kandros. You have room for one more when you ship out? Sara here's been dying to get out and explore more, and I mean, she is the Pathfinder, so it would be nice to have her along by your own logic."

"Don't see why not," Tiran agreed. He looked at Sara. "You up for it? If you've got other pressing matters it's fine."

Sara searched for words for a few moments. Right, because at any age, being in an enclosed space for a time, and then in a situation where you had to stick together hadn't gotten embarrassing quickly. "Pressing? No. I'm taking a bit of a break. It's odd jobs here and there until that Primus asshole rears its ugly head. When do you – we leave?"

"Couple of hours from now. We're leaving on the Arbiter. Parked right next to the Tempest. It's short notice, but you'll probably be the most welcome face around."

"I'll be there," Sara agreed

Tiran nodded. "See you then." He turned and left.

Sara waited until he was out of earshot before she turned back to Gil. "I hate you. I actually hate you."

He grinned back at her. "You're welcome, Dollface. But why hate me? Are we in high school? You're not that terrible. You're not that far off, but you've got some game. But start asking me to do your hair and we're done. Besides, we do need to explore the place if it's gonna be home."

She rolled her eyes and got up. "Well, now that you volunteered me for a mission, I have to get my things. You're paying for our drinks, just so you know."

"You'll thank me someday. I mean, Meri-Dian has to have a little friend to play with, don't they?"

She flipped him off over her shoulder as she retreated.

"You two would make the most badass children!" he called after her. "And I'm telling Vetra!"

She merely raised her finger higher in response, then lost the battle with her own laugh that was threatening to come out.

By the time she had gotten back to her room, suited up and gotten the last of her things ready for the trip, her mind was going again. This time, thankfully it was more on the mission to come. She had been itching to explore since they had landed there and she and the team had charged through. Gil had at least given her that opening, too. She contemplated taking the others, but figured they had earned the rest.

She made it to the docks, and when she reached the Arbiter, she stopped and looked up at it.

Right, so it was a roadtrip by nearly all accounts, just with a very attractive friend of hers. She could handle it, but she was doomed.

Then again, she had been through worse situations with less desirable starting points- how they got to Meridian was Exhibit A.

She'd take those odds.


	2. Chapter 2

This… had been a very, very bad idea.

Sara had gotten into the Arbiter with no issue. It had been smooth sailing until they had all figured out that they should split up into groups and all go different directions. She, Kandros and a handful of others had broken off into their own shuttle, and it had gone downhill from there. She hadn't minded the team-up, she had minded the entire wall of windows on the shuttle- that bore a striking resemblance to the one she and Liam and the others had been in before it got torn apart and they had nearly fallen to their deaths.

She would've laughed if she had enough air in her lungs left.

 _Leave it to me to be on the verge of a goddamn panic attack after the biggest event in my life._

She turned around, held onto the bar above them for dear life and squeezed her eyes shut. She could just sense the walls starting to close in on her. _Breathe, fucking breathe._

"Pathfinder?"

She cracked one eye open and tried to smile at Tiran, but it failed miserably.

"You feeling alright? Is there a problem?"

"Oh, you know, just… kinda having flashbacks to my first near death experience when I fell out of a shuttle that looks exactly like this."

"Shit, I didn't think about that…" he mused.

"You didn't know," she assured him. "But uh… I think I'm just gonna sit down until the pilot finds a place to land." She practically dropped onto the bench beside them. She did manage the smallest laugh when he followed her down. She thought she had a hero complex, and here he was, checking on the damsel in distress. The laughter promptly died when she realized she had referred to herself as much. She groaned when she noticed she was bouncing her knee as a nervous tick she and Scott had inherited from their mother.

"Well, with any luck we'll be down before long. When we touched down we were what, twenty minutes out from where the Nexus is now?"

"Something like that," she answered. That still left around ten in the potential flying can of death. Fuck, this was bad, why had she let Gil convince her to do it? Oh, right, because she wanted to spend time with the guy sitting next to her.

She was so dumb it was infuriating.

Tiran was silent for a while. And then, carefully, like he wasn't sure he should even speak: "You know, I never apologized to you."

"For?"

"Snapping at you after your first real encounter with the Archon. I told you you were being reckless with your life and all of ours. You proved me wrong with flying colors."

"You call that snapping?" Sara asked. When he didn't so much as react, she sighed. After she took a moment to enjoy that her breathing was getting back to normal already, she shrugged. "You weren't wrong. It's… we just wanted to take care of people. We just had different approaches. Mine just happened to work. You've got nothing to apologize for."

"Still wanted it out of the way."

"Then it's accepted," Sara answered with a small smile. It grew a bit but she turned away when she heard him hum what sounded like his own acceptance. Their moment was broken, however, when the shuttle suddenly jerked and her heart sunk again. She waited for worse, but the shuttle evened out and the pilot came on the comms and apologized, claiming it was turbulent by the mountains. Still, she couldn't help but start up a deathgrip on the edge of the bench. She closed her eyes again. She felt Tiran scoot closer to her so the sides of their bodies were touching from arm to hip. It almost set her off again because that had been her family's habit when one of them were distressed and the others wanted to help but didn't have the words.

They stayed like that for a while until the shuttle made a thankfully slow decent into whatever landing spot they had found.

When the others had cleared the shuttle, Tiran glanced back at Sara. "Are you going to be alright?"

"You know, I was going to say 'Fine, so long as this place doesn't have insert-problem-here' but considering we have no idea about this place outside of what I charged past a few days ago, so I'm not going to jinx it."

"Jinx?" Tiran asked.

"Say something bad that ends up coming true," Sara clarified. As if to test her theory, she hopped off the side of the ramp a couple of feet above the base. She tested the ground, then nodded, satisfied. She looked around and then saw the Tower in the distance. At least there was some place to use as a visual guide. They were still miles away now, if anything went wrong.

 _And that thought process is why things go wrong_. If she could keep her mouth shut, things would go swimmingly.

Then again, this was about as close to her old job as she could probably get now, so she best enjoy it when she could. She started walking away from the shadow of the shuttle to get a better view. "Good. This is… good. This is familiar. This is…" she trailed off when she realized just how colorful and bright everything around her was. It was a nearly laughable contrast from the darkness that it had mere days ago, both at the Tower and just the feeling that had muted everything when she was charging to what might have been her death. But here everything was so fucking colorful and brilliant it was like entering another world.

Well, technically it is, she reminded herself. "This is unreal. It's gorgeous. Do you see these colors?"

"It's something else. What did you have in mind to do here first?" Kandros asked.

"Log everything I haven't seen yet, see what SAM has to say." She spotted a large flower that had blue, white, pink and yellow hues all at once and had a distinct glow. "Like that one. It's huge!"

Tiran watched her approach it, then glanced back at his men, who were looking around elsewhere. He sighed and followed her. "You know, in my experience, approaching unknown fauna on a planet we barely understand isn't the best idea."

"Eh, my brother's the cautious one out of us," Sara dismissed the claim.

"I've noticed," Tiran deadpanned.

She laughed again. "I'll be careful. I promise." She turned back to the flower. Really, this was right up Suvi's alley with the 'colors we don't have names for.' She said as much, then had SAM log it. In the end, she barely even paid attention to what SAM had to say as far as classification went before she was on to the next one. After a few moments, she noticed Tiran was still behind her, gun tucked into his chest with one finger ready on the trigger. "You're that worried something's gonna find us?"

"You're not?" Tiran countered. He only spared a glance at her before he continued to study the treeline.

She flinched. He thought she was an idiot for just trying to scope out what living things they had to work with. Of course she should have been more focused, but she needed to know more about the local life. She was Pathfinder, after all. She was the people's guide in more ways than fighting through danger to keep them safe. Still, her chances at impressing him were at an all time low. "I have a priority to work with, and I have a feeling the Kett probably wiped out anything around if there were other threats. Live a little!"

Of course, it was that moment that a deafening roar shattered the silence in the area.

Sara groaned. "Why do I ever bother speaking? Can't I have a day of peace?" she muttered before she unclipped her assault rifle from her back. At least she had come prepared instead of going in blindly and stupidly. _So take that_ , _Kandros_.

The pair inched closer so they were back to back. They stopped once they had a good setup and scanned the horizon, waiting. Tiran's men joined them a moment later. They had all started to murmur about it being a potential false alarm when the ground started to shake. They huddled closer.

The trees to their right shook, and then a creature that Sara could only describe as a Fiend meeting a Rylkor but three times the size and five times as terrifying burst out of them.

The part of her that used humor as a coping mechanism pinpointed the fact that it was red and as brightly colored as the damn flowers before the logic kicked in and she realized that no weapon that any of the group had would do any damage against the thing. As far as the creature was concerned, they were dinner and there wasn't a damn thing anybody could do about it. "RUN!" She figured there was a slim chance of them actually succeeding in outrunning it, but she hadn't come that far to die now.

The group tore in the opposite direction. They managed to outrun it for a while, but the more agitated it got, the faster it got. And a matter of seconds later, they had come to a narrow fork in the road, and they all seemed to work out they had been herded towards it. And there was no way they could all go in the same direction without getting slowed down and potentially eaten. Sara dodged right, fully intending to try to lead the pack, but she heard Tiran shout something behind her and suddenly they were the only two running to the right, the three others had broken off to the left, and the creature had chosen her direction to run. "Shit! SHIT! WHY DO I EVER BOTHER TALKING?! ME TALKING ALWAYS MAKES IT WORSE!"

"Definitely worth thinking about _later_!" Tiran called back. He turned sharply, still running.

Sara caught him fiddling with something on his wrist, and she risked a further glance back to see he had unhooked his omni-tool. "The Hell are you doing?!" she shouted, turning back just in time to avoid tripping over a winding tree branch.

"Testing a theory!" he called back before he promptly lit up the omni-tool and threw it towards the creature, just past its head.

The creature watched it fly behind it before it turned back to its preferred prey.

"Theory failed, GO!" Tiran insisted.

The chase went on for minutes after that, with the damn thing not letting up once. They were starting to tire, but at least the creature looked like it was having the same problem. They turned one corner, only to have to skid to a halt because they were met with a dead drop only a meter away from where they were standing. They could see water at the base, but it was still a long way down. They grabbed for each other at the last minute to sturdy themselves, then risked a glance back at the creature-

It was clawing at the ground, not unlike old Earth animals that were ready for a final charge, Sara realized. "Oh, God…"

"Pathfinder," SAM finally chimed in, and Sara wasn't sure whether to be relieved or hate that he spoke up now. "Your chances of survival of a fall from this height or being killed by-"

"Not the time, SAM!" Sara cut him off. So 'hate that he spoke up', it was. _Shit._

Tiran hadn't looked away from the creature. Then, carefully. "Path… Sara?"

"Yeah?" Sara squeaked, very aware that they were facing extremely bad odds and Mr. Professional had used her first name. Alright, so she was probably going to die via this glorified dinosaur. She was going to haunt the shit out of Gil for that one. She wasn't going to give him one second worth of peace.

"I apologized earlier about my rush to judgement…" Tiran began.

"Yeah…" she continued. This was most definitely not the time for it.

"I'm sorry about this, too," he finished.

And then a moment later, just as the creature charged, Sara could just make out Tiran turning sharply, and then suddenly there was a weight at her abdomen, and the pair of them were falling towards the water below.


	3. Chapter 3

Death was… quiet.

Death was… weightless.

Death… felt a lot like water rushing around and being pulled by a current.

Sara snapped awake after realizing that no, she had just been being dramatic even subconsciously, and she had made it to the water below. Still, that was better than being eaten alive. She opened her eyes, only to shut them immediately when water hit them. So the water qualified as rapids, it was fairly deep, and she was floating along like dead weight. And if it was one thing she knew from her work as a recon specialist, is that rapids were always flowing somewhere- usually a giant waterfall that could also mean death: one potentially as painful as being eaten alive.

Fuck.

She thrashed to try and gain some traction out of sheer instinct, and immediately wished she hadn't because pain ripped through her left hand when she did. She swore, aloud this time, and got a mouthful of water. She tried to surface again and succeeded. "SAM! Sam what happened?!" she called before she started to get pulled under.

"Kandros forced himself and you off of the cliff. He seems to have favored your odds of survival that way in place of the Unknown Creature. Statistically, you would have had a greater chance at surviving-"

"I know that shit, catch me up!" Sara blurted again when she surfaced. Really, she hadn't, and really, really didn't want to know her odds.

" _You beat the odds 30,236 to_ –"

"Never tell me the odds!"

" _I am required to provide you with information to make a better educated_ -"

"Why does my wrist hurt so damn bad?!"

" _Your wrist gained three stable fractures on impact-_ "

Fuck.

" _-Your omni-tool was also lost on impact._ "

FUCK.

That meant no contact with the others. They were possibly on the other side of the goddamn planet and couldn't get word to her friends. She got pulled under and forced her way up again. "Where's Kandros?!" she highly doubted he knew, but for some reason voicing her own worry helped.

" _Unknown, but I am reading several signs of life in the immediate vicinity._ "

F U C K.

 _"He may be among them. One life sign is approaching. Four meters-_ "

Fucking shit.

" _Three meters_."

That damn dinosaur was back, she was certain.

" _Two meters._ "

She was going to die. Again. Third time was always a charm.

" _One_ -"

Something suddenly yanked at the back of her armor's collar and her entire body shifted to accommodate the motion. When her feet found solid ground immediately, she was mortified. She had assumed she was close to drowning a mere few seconds ago, by but the feel of it she was in water about waist deep. She hoped that she- hopefully they had landed in water that was far deeper and had floated down to this depth. She finally willed herself to crack an eye open again and held in a relieved laugh when she spotted pale grey fringe- distinctly Turian. She got her footing on the riverbed and crab-walked her way behind Tiran as he started to drag her towards the edge of the water.

When they reached it, and she was crawling on more rock than water, she turned and collapsed.

Tiran apparently had the same idea, considering he laid down on his stomach next to her.

They were silent for a while, regaining breath. Sara was the first to officially recover. She panted, then reached over in order to pat his chest. "My hero," she said with a weak laugh. In hindsight, she hoped it sounded more grateful than dreamy. The fact that it was meant about 50/50 between the two wasn't relevant at the moment.

He merely grunted in response.

They were silent for a while again. Then it was apparently his turn to speak: "You just… had to mention things being bigger and more colorful here, didn't you?"

She continued to stare up at the sky, considering, and then slowly, carefully crackled a smile, and before long, a full-on belly laugh. It had been so damn long since she had reason to do one, the feeling it caused was nearly alien, but it felt so damn good it was unreal. When she heard what was most likely him laughing with her it set her off all over again. It wasn't until she had started to shift around that her broken wrist protested and the laughter died in a hiss. When he looked at her, she raised her hand. "Broken wrist. Lost my omni-tool, too."

"Great," Tiran sighed. He got up carefully and quickly- enough to make it look like he was fine, but careful enough to reveal that he had a limp. He turned to her and offered a hand, then hesitated.

Sara picked up on the unasked question and gave him her good hand. When he had pulled her up enough she put all her strength into going the rest of the way to return his favor. "How bad's the leg?"

"I-" he began, then sighed. "Not terrible, somehow. I've had far worse and walked on it." He looked around, also failing to find anything familiar. "Don't know how long I can keep walking on it, though."

She heard the underlying connection with 'how long he could walk' vs 'how much walking back to base or the shuttle they had.' "Any word from your people?"

"No, not yet. But if that… thing followed us, chances are they could get back to the shuttle and do a sweep for us, or at least get help."

"So it's a waiting game."

"Looks to be one, yes."

"Aw, so it really is an official APEX mission!"

He shot her a look that would've been a lot easier to read had he been human, but there was enough resignation that she filled in the blanks. "What? It does take a while, don't pretend it doesn't." When he remained silent, she sighed and unhooked one of her other guns from her back.

He mumbled something about resources that she didn't catch. She sighed, then ducked under the arm opposite his bad leg to support him. "Well, at least we've still got our guns. Alright, what's your vote on the direction we should go?"

"Considering we've got a few waterfalls by the base: upstream."

She nodded. "Sounds smart. See, I knew you were my favorite Turian for a reason."

"… Have you ever gotten in trouble for mouthing off so much?r"

"Ah, see, that's what Vidal and I have in common. Never had a complaint about anything involving our mouths." If it was possible for a Turian's eyes to roll into the next century, Tiran's did. She almost felt bad but was too proud of her own quick thinking to let it bother her. "Okay except that one time Garrus Vakarian would've hypothetically punched me in the face."

"What?!"

"Back in the day Kyla Shepard did something stupid and one of his old C-Sec friends said he'd deck me in the face if I talked shit about his girlfriend."

Tiran rolled his eyes again, then drew his gun. He nodded upstream. "Let's get going before you rig our chances again."

"I'm unlucky, I can't help it. Same goes for my brother. We got it from Dad. It's a damn curse."

"You've got a lot more luck on your side than you think, Pathfinder. You have escaped death three times."

"In the last year," Sara clarified. "The real record's more like ten. Long stories, all of them," she continued. She was silent for a while as they walked. It was… odd, how quickly he could make her transition from humor-to-cope mess to so, so serious. "But uh… thanks, for that. The 'luck on my side' bit."

Tiran nodded. "I told you that I'll always be level with you a while back. That hasn't changed- with or without you dragging me into your 'almost get killed' schemes."

"Aw, but that's part of my friendship test," she countered. Again, she flinched. There was the coping to serious bit again. She had gone and ruined A Moment now.

"Did I pass?" he asked after a moment.

Her heart fluttered a bit at that. Alright, maybe she hadn't. "With flying colors," she reported, then, loudly to their surroundings. "That are not big and brilliant and do not have very large teeth."

He laughed at that, again, a little more carefree than the last time, and her heart fluttered again. Well, at least there was some hope for her.

Best. Near death experience. Yet.

As far as Scott Ryder was concerned, Harry was a loving, compassionate idiot.

He loved the man to death, he really did. Being there any time his father wasn't made Harry an important player in Scott's life. As much as he did love Alec, if asked about his 'father raising him', he'd probably make a point to acknowledge that Harry had raised him more than Alec had.

But the man was far too easy to escape from.

He was making his usual rounds around the base when he spotted the friend Sara had been talking to before, Gil, flanked by a Turian and a Krogan, all wearing matching pissed off expressions and staring down some guy from APEX- Scott was pretty sure his name was Sajax.

"What the Hell do you mean they're 'missing?!'"

"They went out on a scouting mission a few hours back. There was apparently an attack from a wild animal out there. We got our agents back, but Kandros and the Pathfinder are still unaccounted for."

Now that got his attention. He tried to make his approach as quiet as possible, then at the last second he nudged between Gil and the Turian. "What about the Pathfinder, now?"

Gil jumped and turned to him.

When Scott looked at him and raised an eyebrow, all Gil gave him back was an apprehensive look before he turned back to the agent.

Scott leaned forward again. "The Pathfinder's missing?!"

Sajax sized him up. "Who's asking?" he looked at Gil. "What, did you call in the cavalry when I wasn't looking-"

"The Pathfinder's brother is asking," Scott growled.

Sajax stared at him, then sighed. "There was a scouting mission. It went wrong, we don't know where they are. Chances are that they're fine, it's only been a matter of hours."

Gil turned to Scott. "I'm sure you know that your sister's a worrier herself- she checks in every couple of hours, no matter what. She hasn't checked in since she left. Something's wrong."

"Sounds about right. Is anything being done?"

"Not yet, apparently," the Turian next to Gil chimed in.

"We're working on it, and we'll be sure to keep you posted if anything else comes up. I think the Pathfinder and Kandros can manage trouble on their own, but if you have that little faith in-"

"Listen here you little shit-" Gil began.

"We have a lot of faith in them, thanks," Scott cut him off. He took him by the shoulder and pulled him back for good measure, but not before setting Sajax with a look that conveyed all that Gil would've unloaded on him. He glanced at Gil's companions, who looked back at him curiously. He nodded to a spot a few yards away, and he led the way over to it.

Once they got there, Gil yanked his shoulder out of Scott's grip. "The Hell was that about?"

"Making sure we didn't go off on the guy and jeopardize any of the relationship's Sara's made so far. See? I said 'we', I'm on your side. Now who the Hell is Kandros?"

Gil's glare softened with each passing word, and at the question, he shrugged. "Well, admittedly if it would be anyone she'd be safest with that isn't standing in a five foot radius of us, it's him. Leader of the militia here. You've seen him around. He invited her on a mission to explore this place, and… well, now you're all caught up."

"Do we need to stage a rescue mission?" Scott asked. He would be ready and raring to go for one whether Harry liked it or not.

"Easy, Rambo. Look, we might have not talked before a few hours ago, but I know you're all Sara's got and if you over-exert yourself and talked about doing so in my presence, she'd murder me. So no, it's a bloody waiting game."

Scott scoffed. "But if she's hurt-"

"Have you met your sister? She'll bloody manage if she has to so much as tape an injury shut," Gil countered.

Scott raised his eyebrows briefly. He had barely known the guy across from him a grand total of eight hours but he was already moving up in the ranks of his favorite people. That sentiment was one of the truest things he had ever heard. He turned his attention back to the others. "And you guys are…?"

The Turian spoke up. "Vetra Nix, Nakmor Drack, friends of Sara. Good to finally officially meet you," she replied, then, after a moment of contemplation, "who's Rambo?"

"Character from an old vid, Vetra. We'll show it to you sometime. You're probably one of the few who would appreciate it," Gil explained. "Actually, Drack, you are too."

Scott nodded a greeting to the pair, then looked back at Gil. "Seriously? Just wait them out?"

"Well, considering they just might not want to be found…" Gil began.

Scott immediately got at least some of the implication. "What?"

Vetra elbowed Gil in the ribs. "Nothing. Sara should be fine. She always is. We just need to try Plan A and wait it out."

Scott put his hands out. "Alright, just wait on that for a second, what the Hell does 'don't want to be found' mean?!"

Gil looked irritated for a second, then apparently threw caution to the wind for a moment and had the nerve to smirk at him. "Well, you've been out for a lot then, haven't you?"

"If you're any sort of quality stand-in brother, you'll tell me everything you know," Scott protested.

Gil's smirk widened.

Scott was about to object when he practically sensed Harry coming before he saw the man calling him. He hadn't been spotted yet. "Get me to the Tempest, get me back into the action, please," he begged.

Gil stared him down, then shook his head. "Nope." He waved Harry down.

Scott gawked at him. "Seriously?!"

"One thing I've learned in life, mate: It's better to be on the receiving end of a protective older brother's ire than getting a friend's sibling nearly killed over a stupid decision," Gil explained. "But, both topics, to be continued. I promise."

"Ass," Scott countered, although there was no venom. He faced Harry and put his hands up when the man approached. "Hey, Doc, come on, it was just a walk-"

"I heard you ask to be taken to the ship, you horrible liar," Harry shot back. When Scott took a step closer to him, he took hold of the younger man's closest wrist and in a second fluid motion, clapped a bracelet onto it.

Scott frowned at it, then recognition dawned on him. "You put a tracker on me?!"

"Traditional methods were failing, so yes. Now back to med-bay!"

"I'm fine!"

"Then a few more days of downtime won't kill you when we're here."

"But I'm bored! I don't do downtime!"

"Scott Raylan Ryder, get back to medbay _now_."

Gil choked back a small laugh, then turned to Vetra and Drack before he motioned at them to get moving."

"What's the problem? He just said the guy's name-"

"It's a human thing. When an older person uses a middle name, shit's real and others should leave the vicinity now," Gil muttered as he herded them along.

Now that his backup had promptly retreated, Scott groaned and started to head back for medbay. "I'll give it three more days-"

"A week, then we can talk," Harry argued.

"Five days?" Scott negotiated.

"I will keep that bracelet on you after you leave."

"Oh fine. Why do you have to be such a buzzkill?!"

"Because it's part of the job description. Your dad's literal words were 'if the kids are a pain, be a pain right back.'"

"Thanks, God-Dad."

"You're welcome, Godson."


	4. Chapter 4

Sara woke with a start some time later. She panicked at first. There was no immediate danger, and that was the problem. Everything was relatively quiet aside from hopefully-harmless wildlife in the distance, nobody was attacking. It was like her subconscious had woken her up to point out that it was too good to be true. She spotted Kandros on the ledge a few feet away and realized just why it had been so peaceful. They had stopped to camp and by the looks of things it was a fair while into her shift keeping watch. "Shit, I'm up, I'm up, what-"

"Easy, Pathfinder. It's fine, it's only been three hours since we were supposed to switch."

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have- why didn't you wake me?"

"When was the last time you got a decent amount of rest?"

She opened her mouth and shut it firmly a moment later. His tone conveyed that the question was rhetorical and he knew the answer anyway. It was true, and the logic was what waking up like that had caused. She couldn't remember her first uninterrupted sleep before that. "Yeah. Uh… anything new?"

"Stumpy's a nuisance to everything, but not much else to report."

They had named the creature Stumpy after they had found him again. They had spotted it terrorizing smaller wildlife and went to higher ground to study it. All they ended up working out that it still looked as dangerous from far away. They had also noticed now that they were behind it that a chunk of its tail was missing- thus the nickname that Sara was surprised that Tiran was entertaining. Of course, the bite brought the big question that there was something bigger and higher on the foodchain around. Sara simply hoped it was the Architect that had been floating around the trees when Kandros had first landed at the battle. It made the most sense, so it was the right answer and she was sticking to it. If (read: when) she got proven wrong, she'd deal.

"Well, either way it's your turn. Go rest for a while."

"I'm fine. Turians get by with less sleep than humans all the time."

"You've already gotten the hero card in my book. You don't have to prove anything."

"It's been ten hours, Pathfinder. I can manage," Tiran countered.

"Well now you just made me look bad."

"You made yourself look bad when you thought it would be a good idea to say we'd be fine and not assume there were predators out here. As far as sleep is concerned, you deserve to sleep for years after saving all of us," Tiran objected. "But you're one of those 'I just slept six hundred years, that's enough for a lifetime types."

"Literally was about to say that," Sara admitted. "And I thought Kett were the only challenging predators around here!" She rolled over to shove at his knee and gasped overdramatically. "Ass." She pulled herself to her knees and went next to him and readjusted to sit. She stared out onto the horizon and let out a breath she didn't realize she was holding. Really, Meridian was gorgeous now that it wasn't all remnant metal, bullets and energy field flying everywhere and said Architect rearing its ugly head. She could enjoy it more now that they were at least away from everything. Things were brighter, bigger, and ten times more beautiful. The same giddy laugh that had been cut short hours before bubbled up again. Then it turned nervous all over again when all of the other emotions decided to hit her at once: happiness, fear, guilt, relief, doubt- they were all there in a muddle in her head. She sighed and ran a hand through her golden hair and fought back the tears that threatened to fall when the negative emotions started winning the battle.

"Sounds like you're finally about to take me up on my offer about venting," Tiran mused.

"No," she laughed weakly. It faded again when the urge to do just that might as well have punched her in the face. "Just… okay yes, but more just… I'm less bitter about it now, because _this_ … this makes it all worthwhile, you know. Fruits of my labor as far as you can see. This… this is what took so damn long to get. This is what grinning and bearing Tann and his bullshit and all the politics ended with. Scary predators aside it's… something." She genuinely couldn't come up with a word to do the sense of pride and happiness justice. Then it all came crashing down. "But it's still so much. We lost all the Pathfinders that were supposed to do this. I let those salarians die because I knew if they survived exaltation they'd be less of a threat than the krogan. I got the Salarian Pathfinder killed because of that choice. They should've been here leading. They would've done it better. They would've… Scott would've been better. He had more… military-ish training than I did. I'm a glorified science officer, I shouldn't be in charge of all this, let alone a guardian for a species." She shook her head. "You know, when we were growing up my mom called Scott and I Little Albatrosses. It's a bird from Earth, and there was some poem where one of them was good luck for a ship. See, we came along and Dad got all of those promotions and ideas that led up to all this…"

"Seems like a fitting name," Tiran said after a moment.

"Yeah, well, what you don't know is that in the poem some asshole shoots the albatross out of the sky and that starts all the bad luck. I think I'm at the bad luck phase of the nickname." She nearly jumped when she felt something on her hand, and it took her a minute to realize he had put his hand over hers. Him and the touching, she thought fondly for a minute.

"The way I see it, there were problems, but you're still here. Hundreds of people are still here, alive and thriving in a new world because of you," Tiran insisted. "Sounds like you're still good luck to me." When she scoffed and bumped his shoulder with hers, he shook his head. "I mean it, _Pathfinder_. You did the best with what you could do," Tiran cut her off. "Focus on what you started with. Yes, it was a lot of blood, sweat and tears but you did it. You did this for everyone, despite all the odds against you. I don't know how you did it," Tiran admitted. "Believe me, there are some people who wouldn't have done it. Would've out and out refused the second they got the job. But you persevered, and that's the most admirable thing about you," he went on. "Not to mention the politics. I don't see how you didn't deck Tann in the face. I almost have."

"Oh, no, it's tempting. Telling Addison that Tann can fuck off with his opinions was the closest I got."

Tiran shrugged. "Well, at least you got to do it somehow."

"Oh believe me, if I ever get the opportunity I'm still gonna do it."

"Just make sure I'm there to see it."

"Will do."

He 'hm'ed again, though this time it was loaded with eagerness to see the mentioned event. He scanned the horizon in appreciation once more before he stood up. "Come on, we're already burning daylight."

"You know that phrase?"

"That's what the new human recruits always say when they're showing off and trying to upstage everybody. Thinks it makes them look more ready for anything."

"You showing off to me, Kandros?"

He huffed out another laugh. "Only if it's working," he countered.

She tried to hide her answering gawk.

He waved his hand in front of her to extend the offer again.

She took it and let him pull her to her feet. They had what looked like a quarter of a mile left of outcropping on the cliff they were on before they had to climb down and be in the creature's territory again. She brushed herself off, and realized in that moment that he hadn't exactly said 'no' to the question.

The next few hours had gone by in mostly companionable silence aside from small talk. With both of their omni-tools gone, Sara's intended job of logging plants and animals was complicated. She had forgone the animal bit, then plucked leaves and petals from plants she hadn't seen before and started stringing them on twine she had come across. It was entirely primitive, but if it was enough to log and have SAM fully analyze later, it would have to do. Still, there was some childhood charm to the activity, and she nearly felt bad that Suvi wasn't there. She would've enjoyed the entire experience. Even Tiran seemed to be kinder about it, opting to keep watch instead of giving her a lecture on awareness. Then again, she had kept a gun in her free hand. It was a work in progress.

When they made it over one hill and saw the bow of the Hyperion sticking out on the horizon, she let out a victorious shriek. It was mortifying a moment later, but that didn't stop her from hitting his shoulder repeatedly in her excitement. "Finally. I mean that's still at least a couple of days' walk, but we're closer than before!"

"I knew you were an 'every little bit counts' kind of person," Tiran mused.

"More like 'it's the little things', but yeah, that works. What do you think? Three days walk?"

"Two, if Stumpy isn't around and doesn't have family around."

"Now who's jinxing us?" she shot back.

"Hey, you're an Albatross, we'll be fine."

"I shouldn't have told you that," she murmured. She had never seen a Turian look smug, but the bastard did in response, and she rolled her eyes. "Come on." She led the way for a few feet until she heard something that sounded wooden snap under one foot. She felt herself start to sink and merely braced herself instead of checking just what had happened. There was really no point. She was destined to fall at least once a day in some capacity anyway. Suddenly there was a second, louder crack and the ground fully caved in under her. "SHIT!" She heard Tiran share her sentiment before she couldn't hear anything over the whooshing in her ears.

Thankfully she was only falling for about five seconds before she hit the ground. Her fall was cushioned by the vegetation around her. She groaned out loud for a while until she heard footsteps. She cracked one eye open and raised her pistol to be safe, but sure enough, it was just Tiran reaching actual ground level and approaching her.

He pulled her to her feet. "You alright?"

"Yeah, fine. Just sick of falling literally everywhere."

"Well, maybe you're an Albatross to everyone but yourself," he suggested.

She scoffed again and turned around, immediately back to business. "You're not wrong, I guess. I mean that might as well have been exhibit A, and basically my career as Pathfinder is Exhibit B through Z- maybe even into the Greek alphabet. Cause I mean really, who could actually fuck up this much and-" she coughed when she was suddenly launched forward by his weight- something she really, really shouldn't have recognized after only one other experience with it. She hit the ground again and would've cracked her head on it had his hand suddenly not been there to stop it from doing so. Still, he hadn't moved from being on top of her. Hardly a problem in her book. "You know, usually I let a date get at least a quarter through dinner or drinks with me before we get to this poin-"

"Pathfinder," he insisted, hand suddenly over her mouth but head tilted up and away from her.

That was a warning if she had ever heard one. She eased up, and when he finally looked down at her he blanched, realizing just how he had landed and raised himself carefully, but not before motioning for her to stay quiet. He reached behind her shoulder and detached her sniper rifle. She rolled to the side as he lined up a shot at something in the distance without word. Really, the whole thing shouldn't have been a turn on after that fucking line she used and the very clear, imminent danger, whatever it was, but leave it to her to come up with something completely inappropriate. She raised herself onto her knees carefully to see what he was aiming at.

She could just make out the silhouettes of a handful of Chosen and Anointed. "Well that just fucking figures…" she hissed. She retrieved her own gun that had landed a couple of feet to their right.

"Remnants in the literal sense…" Tiran agreed. A moment later he pulled the sniper rifle's trigger and landed a shot right between the eyes of one of the Anointed.

The Kett immediately scattered, searching for their mystery attacker.

Sara sighed dramatically. "Never a dull moment." She sighed. Nearly immediately, an energy blast went zooming past her head, missing her by a matter of inches. Without missing a beat, she flinched. "Aaaand then there's that talking thing again."

Tiran chuckled beside her again, preparing another shot. "Then let's make it run of the mill for you. You and that Krogan make bets on fights all the time, right?"

"Yes?!"

"When she arched an eyebrow, he turned his attention to the Kett that were making their way over. "The one who gets the least kills in the next five minutes buys drinks when we get back to the Nexus."

"Sign me the Hell up!"

"… For?"

"I mean you're on! Let's go!"

There was that damned smirk again, and suddenly he was up and a few feet away, leading a couple of Kett from her spot. She bolted the other way to draw the other half of the group's attention.

Well, if that last offer had been any indication, whether it was a friendship or more with him, she needed Kandros in her life in any way possible. In a matter of hours he had nearly become her rock, and that was just what she needed. Alas, she could get all frilly later. For now… she had a competition to win.


	5. Chapter 5

Scott looked up and admired the view to behold outside of Sara's bedroom windows. Seeing space as a whole and stars and planets that weren't artificially rendered was the nicest change he had been through in years. The large snowstorm on the planet that they could see from orbit was one of the most breathtaking things he had ever seen. It even put half of the things he had seen on guard duty at the Citadel to shame. He sensed Sara come up beside him and reached out to squeeze her shoulders. "Breaking me out was totally worth it, just for this."

"Thought you might think that," Sara agreed. "So, where do you want to go first?"

"The new guy gets to call the shots?" Scott asked.

"Well, within reason. I've got business on Voeld, Eos, a bit on Kadara..."

"You do realize those names really do nothing for me, right? I've just seen them on a screen," Scott replied. "But, y'know, I still haven't met that Reyes guy..."

"It's over between him and I," Sara dismissed.

"Still feel like I need to make up for lost time with a shovel talk or two," Scott countered.

"Yeah, well, considering he'd probably kill you on principle for threatening him, no. I'm not losing my second favorite man in the universe."

"Second? Who beat me?" Scott asked.

"Gil, obviously,"

Scott smirked. "Yeah, well, I can see why."

She gagged. "Ew,"

"What? I heard that finding him _interesting_ runs in the family."

"It was one time, he was nice about it, now we're best friends, and I'm his wingman. I keep the riff raff away from him. Spoiler alert: You're part of the riff raff."

"Oh, fuck you!" Scott laughed. He turned and dropped down onto the couch. He closed his eyes, leaned his head back and opened them again- only to look right into the eyes of a pyjak that was staring back down at him from the rafters. "You've got vermin," he reported.

"Hey, the hamster's name is Jim!" Sarah protested.

"Not the hamster," Scott replied. He pointed up.

Sara followed his finger. "And that's Bobo,"

Scott wasn't sure which to focus on- the fact that the pyjak's name was Bobo, or the fact that it was apparently a pet as well. He sighed. "Hey, little guy!" he called, figuring the questions could wait.

Bobo squeaked and climbed down onto the desk to get a better look at him. He made his way over to Scott and gave him an experimental sniff.

Scott let him do so, then outstretched a hand slowly and gave him a scratch behind the ears.

Bobo gave an apparently pleased squeak and settled right into his lap. Scott laughed and resumed scratching its ear.

"Pathfinder, Reyes Vidal has been attempting to contact you repeatedly. He has left five messages on your omni-tool, and has just tried to ping the ship," SAM reported from the PA.

Sara glanced at her omni-tool on the desk. The new one had been digging into her wrist something awful so whenever she was technically off duty she went without it. "And why didn't he succeed in pinging it?" she asked as she walked over to it.

"Unknown. We were hailed, but the frequency cut out."

Sara frowned. Reyes wasn't one to hail the ship. Whatever it was must've been bad. She powered on the omni-tool and checked the messages.

 **I need a favor. - Reyes**

 **Come to Kadara ASAP - Reyes**

 **It's about Kaetus - Reyes**

 **I can't say much on channels that can be intercepted - Reyes**

 **Just get here as soon as you can. Please. - Reyes**

Sara squinted at the messages. Something seemed... off all over again. This was Reyes. Messages that were so short weren't his style. Wording was wrong. This either wasn't actually Reyes or he was in a rush. And he had mentioned Kaetus, the same bastard who had threatened all of them if he had ever gotten out of prison. It read like a trap. But was it really Reyes setting it up? She immediately started mulling over options.

Scott peeked over her shoulder. "Well, you were all right about him being dramatic. He's that needy and you two are over?" Scott asked. "Hate to break it to you, but-"

"Scott, shut up," Sara hissed. She waved her hand in front of his face for good measure. "SAM, is there any unusual activity at Kadara? In the prison, anywhere?"

"No crime reported, but most of the channels are silent when they usually are broadcasting at this time."

Considering how big of a hub it was, that was another red flag. Of course, considering she was known for handling bigger business, she figured acting on two red flags alone would be bad. But damn it, she had been the selfless hero so much, she was entitled to take a personal case. And if something was up with Reyes, all of Kadara was in danger. "Shit..." she muttered to herself. She looked at Scott. "Looks like our first stop is going to be Kadara after all." She turned to the comm on the wall and told the crew and SAM as much.

"You're scared," Scott realized. "What do you think is going on?" Scott asked.

"Well, either Reyes is in danger so Kadara's in danger, or Reyes is baiting me and is about to stab me in the back." Part of her hated herself for suddenly figuring that was the safest bet. She had thought he was above pettiness, whether it was over inter-galaxy politics or their relationship change or not.

"So... you know it's a trap and you're going there guns blazing?" Scott crossed his arms.

"Damn straight," Sara confirmed with a nod. When Scott just stared at her, she frowned. "What?"

Scott beamed and uncrossed his arms in order to hug her. "My big sister is finally getting reckless. It only took twenty years."

"Shut up," Sara countered.

Scott smirked, then put his hands up in surrender. "I'm coming with you," he said.

"No, you're not. This is... Kadara might be even worse than Omega, pal. You've had too many near death experiences this year."

"And you haven't?" Scott shot back.

"I've got SAM full time. You don't."

"You know, we used to be the Ryders. We kicked ass and took names together. Plural. You can't stop me," Scott replied.

Sara stared at him. "You're gonna find a way to sneak off the ship if I tell you no, aren't you?"

"Damn straight," he echoed her from before.

It was Sara's turn to cross her arms over her chest. "Promise me, first sign of serious trouble, you get back on the ship. This starts as recon- quiet recon."

"You're gonna go into the belly of the beast on your own?" he asked.

Sara set her jaw and gave him a pointed look. "Promise me,"

Scott sighed. "Promise."

"Good," Sara nodded. "We'll be there in a couple of hours. I just... need to call in a favor for this first. Hang tight, I'll call you when we're landing."

"Fine."

* * *

Gil stared at Sara. She had come to him when they were about ten minutes from landing in Kadara. "So... let me get this straight. You want me, the engineer, to come on a potentially dangerous mission... to look pretty and keep your equally gorgeous brother occupied?" he recalled.

Sara rolled her eyes. "Well, yeah, but now you just went and made it sound creepy," she countered.

"Well, congratulations, you made me feel _used._ I mean I was honest about what team I batted for because I thought I could trust you with that information."

Sara flinched. Okay, maybe she deserved that... a lot. "Okay, yeah, it's a dick move. I'm sorry, I just need-" she stopped short when Gil cupped her face, yanked her forward and planted a sloppy kiss on her forehead. He pulled back, and she blinked up at him. "... What?"

"I'm joking. 'Course I'll do it, you loon. It's about time my ability to charm anyone could be put to use."

She groaned playfully.

He grinned. "Answer me this, first though: Does 'Gil Ryder' or 'Scott Brodie' sound better?"

"Not gonna answer that."

"You love me."

"No, I don't."

"Lies."

* * *

When they touched down at the port, Sara immediately went into investigation mode. Nothing seemed entirely amiss. There were clearly small operations of questionable legality going on on at the dock itself, but that was nothing new. People were fighting, both verbally and physically. She looked at Vetra. The Turian was the only one of the main group that she trusted with this particular task. She knew Vetra would know what to look for, even with such little information. And there was the fact that she wouldn't hesitate to put a bullet in Reyes if it came to it.

Vetra returned the look. "I don't see anything out of the ordinary. Do you see your boyfriend anywhere?"

"No?"

"Where to first, then?" Vetra asked.

"HQ. If anybody we could most likely trust knows anything, it would be Keema. And she'd at least level with us if trouble was brewing," Sara explained. "Keep your guns on hand, though."

Gil grunted uneasily behind her, but unholstered his.

Scott, on the other hand, hadn't even bothered to put it in his holster.

Sara wasn't quite sure if that was a good thing or not. She led the way to HQ. She couldn't stop thinking about how to even breach the topic. _I received some strange messages. You want to tell me what they were about? Be my second opinion that this doesn't sound like Reyes. Did you know he sent me these? What's going on?_ There was no easy way of putting it. If she was too aggressive and they were innocent, she'd lose any good standing they had. If they were guilty and she questioned them too much, they'd probably be more dead then they were springing the trap in the first place.

The four of them were a few yards away from the entrance when the doors slid open. Sara stopped short when she realized there was too much space between them and the door for it to have opened on its own, and there was no one on either side. It didn't sit well with Vetra either, judging by the fact that she stuck her arm out to stop the men from walking. Sara studied the door for a while, and then saw the one directly above it was wide open with no one around, too. It was then that she heard a distant, high pitched beeping. It kept getting faster, and the realization of what it was hit her like a punch to the gut. "GET DOWN!" she barked, just as an explosion rocked the building.

The resulting shockwave was enough to knock the entire group off of their feet. She hit the ground hard and scrambled to cover herself from the rubble that seemed Hell bent on covering them. Seconds ticked by like hours as she waited for anything else to happen. She expected another explosion or more rubble falling, but there was nothing. Her ears were ringing from the deafening sound of the explosion, but the sound of panicked people screaming made it through the haze. It took her a moment to realize that the entire group was close enough to the building that by rights they should've been dead from the blast. SAM had probably kept her safe, but what about the others? She pushed herself up on shaky arms in order to look at her companions.

Scott was awake but clearly dazed- perhaps SAM's influence as well. Vetra was also hardly worse for wear. She had been knocked back into a pile of clothing being sold and by some miracle it had broken her fall. Gil, on the other hand wasn't moving.

She dragged herself over to him, heart sinking all the way. "Gil?! Gil!" she shook his arm and came back with no response. "No. No no no no no. You can't fucking die on me when I'm the one that brought you here for a stupid reason. Come on." She shook him again, then felt his pulse. She couldn't find it for a few seconds. Her heart sunk more. She had gotten her best friend and the father of a kid who wasn't even born yet killed. She bit her lip to hold in the sob that definitely would've been the end of her composure. Thankfully, she felt his pulse a moment later and released the sob, grateful that it was a relieved one now. His pulse faint and damn near unnoticeable, but it was _there_. She turned back to Scott, who had started to get to his feet. She bolted over to him. She wasn't sure which twin moved first, but it was a mess of hands trying to examine each other. Scott seemed particularly interested in a spot on the front of her forehead, and he also had a gash on the side of his. She squeezed his arms reassuringly. "I can manage! Can you?" she called.

It took Scott a moment, but he nodded.

Sara nodded back, then looked back at the building. The windows were shattered, smoke and flames were billowing out of it- it was bad. A moment later there was a distant explosion- one that sounded like it came from the Underground. "Reyes..." she realized. Weird breakup and royal pain in her ass aside, she still cared about the guy. This had clearly been an attack on the Charlatan. Part of her wondered if he hadn't been the one who had set it up since he had invited her here and the place had been leveled right when she reached the area. Another part of her insisted that Reyes was a little too much of a showman to blow up his own stomping grounds to eliminate her. She glanced at her omni-tool. Part of the screen was broken and the lights were flashing on and off, but it was useable. She fired off a message to him, asking where he was and tried not to panic. She sent another message back to the ship to have Lexi come down for Gil.

She tried to compose herself. She was thankful that the fact that it was the Charlatan's new stomping grounds that went up in a blaze. It eliminated all of the theories that Reyes was probably trying to kill her. He would probably do it face to face, and also she doubted he'd risk his apparent home base for it.

Her theory was confirmed further when there was another explosion that sounded like it came from the Slums. And if there was an attack on the Charlatan's place and then what was most likely Tartarus, somebody knew about Reyes. And they weren't happy. She needed to find him. She waited until she saw Lexi hurrying over with a couple of people and waved in Gil's direction before she headed for the stairs to the slums. Scott and Vetra barely managed to keep up with her.

They made it to the main platform, dodging people who were running out towards the non-settled area. She was halfway up the stairs towards the club when someone who had been hiding behind a pillar covered her mouth with their hand, looped an arm around her waist and yanked her behind the crates beside it. She was dimly aware that the gun at her hip had gone missing in the brief confusion. She heard Scott was suddenly yelling at someone, and she scrambled to fight off whoever had her, throwing her elbows and feet back.

"Easy, it's me. It's me."

Deep, accented. _Reyes_. She let out a sharp exhale, turned and threw her arms around him. "I thought you were dead!" she blurted.

Reyes returned the hug, then pushed her back to arms length so he could look her over. "And I you. Can you call your attack dog off, now?" Reyes asked.

Sara turned around. Poor Scott still had her gun trained on Reyes, but now he clearly didn't know what to do. "Scott, put it down. This is Reyes Vidal. I'm pretty sure he's the target."

"Or he just tried to kill us," Scott countered.

"And throw away all I had with the clubs?" Reyes countered. Sara felt a laugh bubble up in her throat at her theory most likely being confirmed. Still, he was a liar. He could've been playing them. She still wanted to play it like they were on his side. If he was being honest, it was the right place to be. If not, the ball would be in their court.

Scott looked at his sister, and when she nodded, he sighed and put his gun down.

"What do we know?" Sara asked Reyes.

"Nothing. Next to the fact that Kaetus has been missing since this morning," Reyes replied.

"SAM didn't report anything like that-"

"Because I wanted to keep it quiet," Reyes countered.

Sara swore under her breath. "Does he have that many friends that could do this?"

"Exactly what I've been trying to figure out," Reyes agreed. He glanced at Scott again and sized him up. "You get bored of the turian already?"

Sara gagged. "Ew, no. Reyes, this is Scott."

The mixed look Reyes had been giving him suddenly faded, replaced by the air of arrogance and his Charlatan stance. "Ah. The other Ryder. Good to finally meet you," Reyes extended a hand.

Scott stared at it for a moment. He let the answering silence grow uncomfortable for a moment before he shook it. "Yeah. So... you a business owner?" he asked.

Reyes smirked. "Something like that,"

"Reyes," Sara warned him.

Reyes rolled his eyes. "I'm the Charlatan, if your sister hasn't already told you. Best crime lord this place has seen yet. And... apparently someone wasn't quite happy about that," he said.

Sara looked back towards the main part of the city, then frowned. "Keema! Is she-"

Reyes nodded. "She's fine. She was checking on a delivery at the docks. You probably walked right passed her," Reyes assured her. "Did you lose any of yours?"

"Almost. I called our doctor in to get him."

Reyes considered the information, then nodded. "Your ship isn't going anywhere until we figure this out."

"But it looks like you were the target," Sara replied.

"Yes, but Kaetus supposedly knew about _us_ , clearly doesn't know about what's happened in the last week, and might be out for what he perceives could be a weakness of mine," Reyes explained.

Sara's heart sunk a bit when the loaded silence and the look he gave her just about screamed that she still fell under that category. "Then I need security by my ship."

"Already arranged," Reyes replied.

Scott looked between them, feeling very forgotten suddenly. "So where do we start?" he asked.

Sara looked his way. " _You_ don't start anywhere. _You_ are going back onto the ship and staying there. I brought you on board so you can take it easy. I had a plan for you to stay busy here. But now... yeah, no. You're not going anywhere on this. You're grounded, and before you call me Mom, yeah, you're damn right I am in this case."

"And I repeat, you have a near death experience every day!" Scott protested.

"Exactly. I do. You, on the other hand... this is new, and you're still recovering. I shouldn't have caved before anyway," she said pointedly. Then, suddenly far more careful and less teasing, "Keep Gil company for me."

Scott opened his mouth to protest further, but her worried look stopped him. "Hey, he's gonna be fine. I have a feeling even subconsciously your people will be terrified to leave you in any capacity."

She smiled weakly. "Alright, come on. We're regrouping at the ship 'cause I have a feeling it's the safest place we can be right now," she instructed. She took Scott by the arm, and when Reyes took a step back, she took his arm as well. "You too. The last thing I need is for you to disappear."

"Because you think I'm behind this, or because you're worried about me?" Reyes asked.

She let go of his arm to punch him in the chest, then took his arm back. "You pick. Now let's go. We'll go the back way just in case, but Reyes-"

"Keep my head down. I know."

* * *

By the time they had gotten back on the Tempest, Keema was already in the meeting room waiting for them. Sara practically flew into her arms. "I'm happy you're okay," she said. And she was. Keema might as well have been an older sister to her as of late. Her heart would just about break if this turned out to be a ploy.

"So am I. I saw you go towards HQ before. I thought you were done for when I heard that explosion," Keema replied. "Reyes here messaged me in a panic to find you."

Sara's head shot up. "Messages! Shit, that's right! Reyes, were any of these you?" she brought up the messages on her omni-tool and moved over to him so he could see them.

"Asking for a favor was. The others, no," Reyes replied. He took off his omni-tool. He spotted a repair kit on the floor below them and went to retrieve it. He came back with a screwdriver and opened up the omni-tool's back panel and proceeded to rip out the wiring. When the other stared at him, he shrugged. "In case it was tracked as well as hacked," he explained. When they continued to stare, he threw his hands out. "I know I'm not the most trustworthy person, but come on, I'm answering all your questions so far."

'What was the favor about?" Sara asked.

"The favor was acting as my date for a party I was attending to get information from a few old Outcast sympathizers," Reyes explained. "But it's just as well you didn't respond, considering if you had and if Kaetus hadn't escaped, we would've been in Tartarus when it went up." S

"If he even escaped," Sara replied after a moment, and he nodded in agreement. "Alright, I need to know everything. New enemies, old enemies, you name it."

"By the sound of it, it could've been an attack on you, so we need the same from you," Keema replied.

"You'll get it," Sara nodded.

"Then you'll have ours, too," Keema answered, and went to work pulling up files on her omni-tool in order to share them with the ship's computer.

Reyes sighed and looked at Sara. "Investigating as a team. Just like old times, hm?"

"Sounds like it. Just turn down the seduction attempts this time, huh?"

"Please. We've been over this: I'll be a perfect gentleman. Besides, I already contacted Kandros to tell him you're safe before word of this got out."

"You _what?"_ She hissed. Her omni-tool gave off a beep from an incoming message. Sure enough, it was from Tiran.

 **Do I want to know why Vidal sent me a message about you being safe and then didn't tell me anything outside of 'look out for news reports out of Kadara'? Are you alright?**

She huffed and typed out a response.

 **Fine, all things considered. Someone's either after him or me. Some guy set up bombs on Kadara. Don't know much yet. I've got this handled, don't worry. Get back to you soon. Might need your help to hide Reyes' body after this, at this rate.**

She felt bad leaving it like that and keeping it simple, but she started to wonder if Reyes had the right idea in destroying his omni-tool. Still, she knew Tiran wasn't going to come running to help, so there was that.

The omni-tool beeped again.

 **Gladly. Stay safe. If you need anything on the legal end of things in the meantime, let me know.**

She stiffled a scoff of appreciation. Leave it to him to come up with that after accepting all she said. She sent him an affirmation, then turned back to the others. "Alright then. Where do we start?"


	6. Chapter 6

The moment he heard Gil groan after waking up, Scott scooted closer in the chair Lexi had provided him. Sara had barely left her friend's side when she wasn't talking business with Reyes, and she had finally, finally turned in to attempt to get sleep. Granted, it was him who had insisted on it and shoved her into her room and locked it from the outside. He had promised to keep an eye on Gil and Reyes, and that was that.

When Gil blinked blearily at him, he smiled. "Hey. How you feelin'?"

"Like an entire building got dropped on my body?" Gil croaked.

Scott's smile widened. "Well, you're not wrong."

" 'S everyone okay?" Gil asked.

Scott nodded. "Scratched up and shaken, but you definitely got the worst of it. "You almost died and cost us half of the latest shipment of resources to get you back," Scott shot back playfully. When Gil looked panicked for a moment, he realized how bad of an idea it was. "Totally lying. Lexi got you stabilized within a few hours with no big issues and at… essentially little to no cost. Your body was just apparently Hell bent on sleeping it off."

" 'We'? 'Lexi'? You're adapting fast," Gil noted.

"Yeah, well, when you're basically a member of the crew by blood, you learn quickly," Scott countered.

Gil chuckled, then flinched against the pain it caused. "So… how fares Kadara's resident asshole king?"

"Proving to be not such an asshole so far. He's behaving and offering any info on any attacks or leads that he knows about. He won't let Sara out of his sight- and vice versa, mind you. The security locks are changed on all the doors but storage."

Gil nodded after a moment, then groaned and leaned back. "So he's here. If he tries to get anywhere near engineering-"

Scott waved his hand. "That was the first security code she changed. Don't worry. This place is safe. And… well, from what I understand of how he usually is, Reyes is playing pretty nicely. Hasn't even commented on Drack volunteering as his escort around the ship."

"Bound to mean he's just letting us warm up to him before he betrays us all," Gil countered.

Scott stared at him, then leaned back. "What the fuck kind of person was my sister dating?" Scott asked.

Gil snorted, then hissed in pain when the action made everything hurt. "That, my friend, is the biggest mystery of the year…. You know, outside of 'What the actual hell are the Remnant?'"

The pair chuckled, then glanced up when the entryway door slid open.

Lexi was on the other side. She glanced up from her omni-tool and sighed. "Ah. Scott. As eager to listen to my instructions as your sister, I see."

"Hey, I think technically my sister outranks you, and she gave me the orders to keep an eye on this one and let her know when he wakes up. And he just did."

"So get going before this one decides having an overdramatic recovery is a good thing," Lexi countered playfully.

She ushered him out before he could protest further. Scott sighed, then looked around. Sara had been so busy the last couple of hours he had lost track of her and couldn't remember the quick list she had given him earlier. He climbed the ladder to the main level and headed for engineering.

He stopped short when he heard voices above them. Sara was the owner of one, and it took him a moment to recognize Harry's due to the low static in the background.

" _Look, I don't mean to 'Dad' you too hard, but… the important thing is that you two are okay. And our… sort of -agreement was that he'd come back if something happened that was in your control. Someone trying to take out you or Vidal doesn't qualify."_

So him being there had been a bit of a ploy. He wasn't at all surprised. He wanted to be offended, but the fact that he was there, in on the action, made all the difference. He could deal with being duped. He started up the ramp.

Sara was curled up on one of the benches, back to him, facing the projection of Harry. "I know, I just… I think this life is finally catching up to me. It's barely been a year, I got thrown into this, almost died three times, _did_ die once, almost got Scott killed as collateral damage, same thing with the crew multiple times, and now… that could've been Scott earlier today, and then I start thinking _that_ way and realize how fucking selfish that is because I'm arguably thinking it's a good thing that Gil got hurt over Scott, and… it's Gil! If I lost Gil I'd be just as wrecked, and-"

Scott flinched. She _sounded_ wrecked. She had every right to, but he hadn't heard her so upset in a long while. He continued on his way up.

" _Look kiddo, if it's one thing that every single person around you knows, it's that you care about people endlessly and equally. We know you don't play favorites, never have, never will,"_ Harry insisted.

Scott's shoe gave a tell-tale creek on the ramp, and Sara turned.

Scott smiled apologetically and waved, then walked over to sit beside her. He nudged her knee with his, and she leaned into him.

" _Scott, good to see you_ ," Harry greeted.

"Same to you, Doc."

The pair of them immediately turned when they heard two people hurrying up the ramp. One set of footprints was quick and quiet, the other set was distinctly krogan. They turned around.

Reyes popped into view with Drack directly behind him. Reyes looked hyper-aware, and Drack looked ready to punch the pirate at a moment's notice.

Sara glanced at the hologram of Harry. "Alright, thanks for the chat, Dad, bye-"

" _'Dad'? Wha_ -"

She powered off the vid-call before Harry could finish.

Reyes looked from Sara, to Scott, to the hologram, then back. He looked apologetic before he squared his shoulders. "We've got a problem," he announced, "A Kaetus-shaped problem."

"What does that mean?" Sara asked after a moment- just as something flashed directly behind her, making the ship's window pulsed with light for a moment.

She and Scott ducked on instinct, then stopped to peek around the edge of the window to investigate.

Sure enough, Kaetus was out on the docks, sniper rifle pointed directly at the window.

Sara was just about to wonder what the Hell Kaetus' plan had been since anything from a sniper rifle could never so much as make a dent in the window, when she realized failing probably was his point.

Sure enough, Kaetus slung the rifle over his shoulder and continued to stare up at them.

"So… he wants to talk, or he just wants me in a better position to shoot me. Great," Sara sighed. She clapped her hands on her knees, then stood up. "Scott, if this doesn't go well, you and Gil can take what you want of my stuff, Jaal gets Jim and Bobo, Suvi gets all the science-related stuff I have, and Kallo gets the Tempest itself."

"Wha- like Hell you're going out there! The guy's already got an advantage."

"Yeah, and somehow he made it through all of ours, so…" she trailed off. It was meant to be a throwaway comment until she realized just how deep that actually went. _If Kaetus got passed their protection, they were either all dead, or…no_. No. Still, her eyes flicked to Reyes for a moment too long, and she felt a pang of guilt when he seemed to catch on and looked about as genuinely hurt as she had ever seen him- including their odd break-up.

"We might be done, but I wouldn't sell you out, let alone endanger you. You know that." He said it as a statement, but she took it as a plea.

"Tempting as saying otherwise so I could deal with him, he's right," Drack cut in. "I've been with him the whole time. He didn't make contact with anybody."

She looked from Drack back to Reyes, who still had that damned look. She concealed a groan and made a mental note to stop being so influenced by facial expressions of all things. "Keema…?" she said quietly. Her stomach twisted.

Reyes shook his head. "It's possible, but I… she…" he trailed off and rubbed his neck.

Sara reached over and gave his shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "Check on her when I'm out there, just in case."

Scott finally cut back in, "You're not going out there!" he repeated. "Or if you are, I'm coming with you."

"Hell. No," Sara finished.

"He can see your backup if they're next to you. He can't see a sniper," Reyes offered. Scott looked at him and nodded pointedly.

" _Someone not seeing a sniper_ is what got us into this mess in the first place," she replied pointedly.

Scott looked between them again, and when Reyes clenched his jaw and his posture tensed up, Scott backed away again. He was starting to realize that concerning the pair he was with, well, the entire crew… there were cans of worms that he didn't even want to think about opening just yet. He snapped out of the realization when he realized Sara's spot she had been in was suddenly vacant. "Wha-" he glanced to the side and saw Sara already halfway down the stairs. "Hold up!"

Reyes was already a step ahead of him, and he took it as a victory. That was, until all Reyes did was grab her arm, take a small pistol from some little hidden pocket at the base of his jacket on his belt (how had people missed that?) and shoved it into the side of her waistband. By the time he had finished the motion Drack had finished closing the distance between them. He put his hands up, flicked his fingers towards Sara's hip, then put them up again.

Sara finally realized what he had done and frowned at him.

Reyes shrugged. "I like my people going into a situation more than half blind. He knows you're a quick draw. You've got a short range gun now. He doesn't."

"I'm not your people," Sara replied quickly. Still, she gave his cheek a quick smack in return, not enough to hurt, but enough to make an additional unspoken point. She turned and hurried down the ramp .

Scott groaned and went to follow her, only to have Reyes put his arm out to block him. "Look man, I know you guys had a thing and you wanna look out for her, but that's _my sister_ and-"

Reyes laughed. "From my understanding, Scott, you have a knack of ruining plans just by being yourself, granted, accidentally. Me, on the other hand, I'm just a trickerous bastard. Leave this to m-"

Drack darted forward again, too quick for Reyes to register. The krogan slammed his forehead against the back of Reyes', and the man crumpled to the ground, unconscious.

Scott jumped back, and found himself looking between them again. After a moment, he motioned wildly between them. "What the FUCK?!" he blurted.

Drack shrugged. "One, that was a long time coming, believe me. Two, yeah, you complicated that bit with the Archon before, but he'd make things worse in this case."

"So… do we…?" Scott began.

"Yeah, we follow, but keep out of sight and on the ship near the airlock. We hear trouble, that's when we go in, you get me?"

Scott nodded. "Yeah, I get you."

"Good. Then let's get to the airlock."

"Right."

* * *

Sara edged down the Tempest's plank slowly. She kept Kaetus in her line of vision, but tried to take in her surroundings as much as possible. There were several Collective members- the ones that had been on Tempest guard duty- dead on the ground.

So Kaetus had dropped them all and then just casually shot the window to make a point. There was no doubt about that now.

She finished her descent and stopped a matter of feet from Kaetus. "What do you want?"

"For you to stop being a thorn in my side."

"That doesn't help-"

"I hacked into your communications. Your lover implicated me in the attempt on your life. Tempting as it is, it wasn't me. And I will not be framed by the Collective or Initiative."

Sara scoffed. "Why the Hell would we frame you? You were already in jail for being a tyrant to these people."

"Like Reyes is any better," Kaetus snapped.

"Do you have a point, Kaetus? You wanna kill me, kill me."

He sneered and advanced on her. "I will try, _Pathfinder_. But on my own terms. Not when I'm being set up. In the meantime… I'm clearing my name. And you're going to help me."

She squinted at him. "What makes you think I'll agree just like that?"

Kaetus straightened out.

Sara saw him move his free hand away from his hip briefly and started to panic. When it turned out he was merely outstretching it- for a handshake- she realized after a moment, she still wasn't sure how to react.

"You were a human of your word, Pathfinder. And I give you enough credit to know that you weren't aware of Vidal's plan until the last second. So you clear me, I play nice."

Before she could react, Kaetus suddenly jerked like an electrical current had gone through him and immediately hit the ground.

Sara pulled the pistol from her belt and held it out, searching the crowd. When she spotted Sajax a few yards away, energy rifle in hand and still pointed at where Kaetus had been, she released the breath she hadn't realized she had been holding.

Sajax made her way over. She gave Kaetus an experimental kick in the ribs, then sighed. "Always hated this guy, even pre-Uprising," she mused. "You okay?"

"Yeah. He didn't… he wasn't pulling a gun," Sara forced out.

"Then what the Hell was that about?" Sajax asked.

"A handshake. Still fuzzy on the 'why'," Sara answered. "What're you doing here?"

"We were on a mission to clear out some of the last outlaws here. Kandros got an anonymous tip that you were in trouble and told us to find you. You're welcome, by the way."

"Thank you," Sara offered a weak thumbs up. "I… we're not exactly sure about that 'trouble' either, but Kaetus just claimed he had nothing to do with it."

"He's threatened your life, and now he broke out of jail, found you and you believe him after that?" Sajax countered.

"Didn't say that. But… we kind of have to hear him out. But… at least this time it'll be on our terms."

"If you say so," Sajax shrugged. She nodded at Kaetus. "So… where are we bringing him? Back to the prison here?"

Sara stared at his body for a while. No. That wouldn't do. He'd just get out again. And if he was telling the truth, whoever actually did the attack could get to him. They needed a home advantage, they needed decent facilities, and a controlled environment. They needed the Nexus. She flinched. There was no way Kaetus was going to like that, and there was bound to be tention with the whole Exile thing, but she'd take controlled danger over a madhouse any day. Nexus it was. She looked back at Kaetus. He wasn't going to be a happy camper no matter what when he came to. She needed control over that sitation, too. A moment later, she figured it out. "No. We're going back to the Nexus. We're putting him in our airlock."

"Oooh. Threatening. I like it," Sajax replied. "Now, is that Vidal's influence, or Kandros'?"

Sara froze and turned to her.

Sajax smirked and crossed her arms over her chest.

Sara rolled her eyes. So even Apex was as meddlesome as her own people. "Shut up and get his legs."

"Yeah, yeah."

They hauled Kaetus up with a fair bit of difficulty and started to make their way to the ship.

Scott was the first to meet them at the ramp, and then upon seeing Kaetus unconcious, the new Turian he had never seen before, and Sara looking more inconvienienced than anything, he chose to keep his mouth shut again. He stared at the wall for a while, alarmed at how silent it was and wondering if the crew had just learned to go with it after a while.

And then, out of the silence:

"DRACK! WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO REYES?!"

"How did you know it was me?!" Drack objected from another room.

"It's ALWAYS you!"

Scott shook his head. Madness. He had signed himself up for madness.

At least this time he was secretly intrigued.


End file.
